As soon as Magistrate Cai opened his mouth, the delicacies on the table suddenly lost their flavor.

President Weng immediately looked worried, and Vice Presidents Xu and Liu also had toothaches and were gasping for breath.

"What's the matter? Is there any difficulty?" The smile on Cai Guoxi's face faded.

"My dear, it's no problem to send someone to the city to negotiate, but what if I go there in person?" President Weng said with embarrassment, "But I'm afraid it will backfire."

"What do you mean?" asked Prefect Cai in a deep voice.

"If we negotiate, the other party will make demands. If we can satisfy them, everyone will be happy." Weng Yu smiled bitterly, "But what if we can't satisfy them? The other party will become even angrier and the situation will get completely out of control."

"Hahaha, rest assured, old president, I won't let you go empty-handed." Upon hearing this, Cai Guoxi waved his hand and said proudly, "I have already talked to Eunuch Li. Not only can we waive the levy this year, but we can also exempt it forever in the future!"

"That's great!" The main business of Dongting Chamber of Commerce is silk business, and several senior executives couldn't help but be delighted when they heard this.

The abominable vampire, the Weaving Bureau, was not only satisfied with producing all kinds of textiles for the imperial court and officials. It also extended its hand to the folk silk weaving industry, and stipulated that each loom of the weavers should be taxed three silver coins per month. After the silk was produced, each piece of silk had to pay another five silver coins, otherwise it would not be sold.

This incident was caused by the Weaving Bureau collecting loom fees from weavers.

Prefect Cai seized on Eunuch Li's weakness and threatened him harshly, finally making him agree to waive all the bad rules in the future, in exchange for the civil servants not throwing him out as a scapegoat.

Anyway, after this incident, he can no longer work in Suzhou, so there is no loss...

As for whether the successor eunuch in charge of weaving would curse his mother, Eunuch Li had no choice but to ignore it and pretend that nothing happened.

This saved one penny of silver for each piece of silk, so the merchants were of course happy.

But it still doesn’t solve the fundamental problem…

Every wrinkle on President Weng's face showed helplessness. "Your Excellency is kind and the citizens will surely appreciate this. But I'm afraid it's still a long way to go before they are satisfied."

"Oh?" Prefect Cai's expression changed and he said, "It sounds like President Weng seems to understand the real demands of those rioters?"

"Suzhou City is the foundation of the Dongting Chamber of Commerce. I have been very anxious these days." President Weng looked at his son and said, "I have asked Weng Fan to check the situation and he has a general understanding of it."

"Please feel free to give me some advice, Brother Weng." Cai Guoxi turned to Weng Fan and said.

"I dare not." Weng Fan replied sternly, "To be honest with you, my grandfather, apart from the bandits who took advantage of the situation to rob, the vast majority of the citizens who caused trouble were those who were unemployed, had nothing to do, and were dissatisfied, so they started to cause trouble."

"Yes, Suzhou citizens have no permanent property, and nine out of ten rely on working for a living. Once they lose their jobs, the whole family will be left without food and clothing. In recent months, too many people have lost their jobs, which is why the riots this time are more fierce than usual." Vice President Xu Zhixiang on the side also echoed.

"Then let them return to work." Chen Tongzhi, who was sitting nearby, seemed to have grasped the key point and started shouting immediately.

But the big businessmen looked at him with wry smiles, as if they were laughing at a joke.

"If they can resume work, why would they leave the money unearned?" Prefect Cai glanced at Chen Tongzhi, signaling him to stop making a fuss. Then he smiled and asked Weng Yu, "Is it true that if we resume work, the riots will be quelled quickly?"

"Okay." Weng Yu nodded and said, "If the Lord can help solve the problem, our Dongting Chamber of Commerce will ensure that all citizens can return home."

"Where does the difficulty lie?" asked Prefect Cai in a deep voice.

"The loom is not turning." Weng Yu answered word by word, and then explained:

"My grandfather certainly knows that Suzhou is known for its prosperous industries, but the silk weaving industry is the real foundation. There are 30,000 looms in the city, and there are no less than 200,000 weavers, embroiderers, dyers and other workers who make their livings in this industry. The rise and fall of other industries and even the entire city of Suzhou are closely related to the looms."

"Yes, as long as the loom keeps humming, no matter how big the problem is in Suzhou, it is not a big deal. If the loom stops turning, then no matter how small the problem is, it will become a big deal." Vice President Xu added, still eager to show off.

"Then how do we make this loom work?" asked Magistrate Cai.

"We need the silk merchants of our Chamber of Commerce to lend silk to the weavers." Vice President Xu replied.

"Don't you have any silk?" guessed Magistrate Cai.

"We have plenty of silk." Vice President Xu said, glancing angrily at Liu Zhengqi who was silent beside him.

"Thanks to Vice President Liu, we haven't used up all the high-priced silk we bought last year. We haven't even used one or two taels of new silk this year."

"So the problem lies with you!" Chen Tongzhi's face immediately changed and he said, "You guys are deliberately trying to cause trouble, right?!"

This time, Prefect Cai did not stop Chen Tongzhi, obviously he also thought the same way.

"Sir, please calm down. Vice President Xu did not explain clearly how the silk weaving industry operates." Weng Fan cursed Xu Zhixiang inwardly. This guy didn't want to explain things properly, but had to find a roundabout way to stab Liu Zhengqi, making everyone lose face.

"Then just tell me clearly." Magistrate Cai scooped a spoonful of boiled dried shredded vegetables and chewed them carefully.

"Yes. Because most weavers have limited funds and cannot afford the high price of raw silk. So they will borrow raw silk from our Chamber of Commerce in advance, and repay with a certain amount of silk after the production is completed. This can greatly reduce the burden on weavers and promote the vigorous development of our Suzhou silk weaving industry."

"You lend out silk and get silk in return, how cost-effective it is." Governor Cai swallowed the food in his mouth and asked in confusion: "Then why don't you lend it?"

"Because we can't sell our silk." Weng Fan said with a bitter face: "To be honest, the sales of silk this year are very poor, less than half of previous years. Our warehouse is full of raw silk that cannot be borrowed, and there are also unsalable silks, but the funds on hand are basically exhausted."

"Yes, Lord." President Weng nodded with a painful look on his face and said, "Silk farmers, silk societies, weavers, weaving households, and our Dongting Chamber of Commerce are all on the same boat. Silk farmers and weavers can't eat, silk societies and weaving households can't work, and we can't make any money either."

"So when the market is bad, we would rather make less money ourselves, or even lose a little, so that silk farmers, silk cooperatives, and weavers can survive."

Chairman Weng sighed and said, "But this time, we really can't hold on any longer. They just don't make any money, but we are going to lose everything - those precious raw silks were bought with real money!"

"My grandfather should still remember the raw silk war last year." Xu Zhixiang complained again: "Due to misjudgment, we bought too much raw silk at an extremely high price. Many of our colleagues not only spent all their money, but also went into debt."

"We thought that if we could hold on until this year, we would be able to recover some losses, but we never expected that sales would plummet again." Vice President Xu said with a depressed look, "When it rains, it pours. When it rains, it pours. Our Chamber of Commerce really can't hold on any longer."

"You have to hold on even if you can't!" Prefect Cai put down the ice porcelain bowl heavily and said in a deep voice, "Now is not the time to cry poor. Every family should grit their teeth, lend out the silk, let the weavers start working quickly, and solve the current chaos first!"

ps. This picture is from yesterday.